Lord of the World Chariot Journey

• This post is for the Lord of the World or Lord Jagannath.
• People who follow other Gods may ignore Lord Jagannath.
• But it is okay because in Hindu religion there are 33 crore Gods and Goddesses, 33 crore means 330 million Gods and Goddesses.
• So in Hindu religion it is okay and acceptable to place emphasis on one God or Goddess over the other and even pray to multiple Gods and Goddesses at the same time or several times in a day.
  
• But in Islam, Sikhism, Buddhist, Zoroastrianism, Judaism and Christianity there is the only one God.
• Now let us detach ourselves from all religions and think in practical terms and then examine Lord Jagannath of Puri.
• Jagannath means literally Leader or Lord of the World.
• World does not just mean Earth. It would mean the entire known Universe whatever is within human beings knowledge. 
• Now there is a period when Lord Jagannath represented by the main trinity of deities Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra come out of the temple and travel in chariot known as "rath" to nearby temple which where they were "born".
• Now single God believers and anti-idol worshipers will dismiss this entire process and say that Lord cannot be created by human and will say that whole process is like a "ritual" with no value.
• But I would like to say the entire process has value.
• In fact it shows that God is real.
• And Lord Jagannath has the power.
• People may not have seen God and can only know the reality in the "afterlife". 
• Afterlife is something that can be experienced after death.
• Hindu religion followers may say that afterlife means rebirth.
• Christian followers though not reject this concept of afterlife and they refined it to say one will lead the afterlife in the "world of Christ". True believers will get "eternal life" in Christ's world which can be called as "Kingdom of Heaven". And so is the belief.
  
• The above points are put in separate bullets as it was a diversion of topic.
  
• I will say in Lord Jagannath's domain, The Lord stays in temple for several months.
• The people come from various parts of the world to visit the Lord and gain their blessings.
• They have various desires, dreams and some just wish to have a glimpse of the Lord.
• This process carries on for several months and Lord does not move from his "Garba Gruha".
• Then during Rath Yatra the Lord steps out and moves to a lesser grand temple.
• Imagine the Lord of the known universe walks among ordinary mortals and stays in a lesser grander temple.
• And then makes the journey back after about a fortnight.
• Now one may decry the Lord but one cannot the decry the humans.
• People have faith and so they visit the Lord and the Lord's temple throughout the year.
• One cannot ignore the people.
• Even if one thinks the God is not real one cannot say the people are not real.
• Millions visit the temple just to have a glimpse of the Lord.
• And so Lord gets the power from the people.
• It is the mutual give and take.
• People think the Lord has power and so they visit the Lord in droves.
• The Lord in turn gets the power from the people.
• That process continues every minute, every day for months on end.
• Also only "true devotees" can visit the temple.
• At the main temple at Puri, Odisha non Hindus are not allowed as they will lack the devotion needed. Non-Hindus may ridicule the God and the elaborate rituals and try to interrupt the processes of the temple.
  
• Thus through the true devotees the Lord Jagannath gains the "power" the power which comes from the people eyes, mind and physical presence.
  
• Then there is the situation where the Lord steps out during the "Chariot Journey" and the power diffuses around the globe and becomes a "Force of Nature".
• It is a good force of course and the power of God (through the people).
• By ignoring the God and the rituals we are ridiculing the people and human beings and so we are ridiculing ourselves and there is no way to survive that.
• Thus the power of God, power of people and power of good and being good is one and the same. 
• One has to be good in this world to survive.
• This the world or Lord of the World, Lord Jagannath.
• He is the King of Kings, the one and only Lord of the known Universe.